Bird Vision

This book provides the first comprehensive and current review of considerable progress made over the past decade in analyzing neural and behavioral mechanisms mediating visually guided behavior in birds.The visual capacities of birds rival even those of primates, and their visual system probably reflects the operation of a ground plan common to all vertebrates. This book provides the first comprehensive and current review of considerable progress made over the past decade in analyzing neural and behavioral mechanisms mediating visually guided behavior in birds.The book's five major sections deal with the visual world of birds, the organization of avian visual systems, the development and plasticity of visual structure and function, visuomotor control mechanisms, and cognitive processes. The introduction to each section discusses the nature and significance of the problem areas, providing a context for the chapters to follow, which review the current status of research on a specific problem. The contributors are an international assemblage of researchers, representing a wide variety of disciplines, ranging from ornithology to neurophysiology and including ethology, experimental psychology, anatomy, and developmental neurobiology. For the ethologist, avian behavior is the source of a wide variety of species-typical fixed action patterns; for the experimental psychologist, birds are the subject of choice for studies of conditioning, learning, and cognitive processes; for the neurobiologist they provide model systems for studying developmental processes, sensory mechanisms, orientation, and motor control. For these reasons, research on the avian brain and behavior occupies an increasingly important place in contemporary behavioral biology.

Graham Martin takes the reader deep into the world of birds from a new perspective, with a ‘through birds’ eyes’ approach to ornithology that goes beyond the traditional habitat or ecological point of view. There is a lot more to a bird’s world than what it receives through its eyes. This book shows how all of the senses complement one another to provide each species with a unique suite of information that guides their daily activities. The senses of each bird have been fine-tuned by natural selection to meet the challenges of its environment and optimise its behaviour: from spotting a carcase on a hillside, to pecking at minute insects, from catching fish in murky waters, to navigating around the globe. The reader is also introduced to the challenges posed to birds by the obstacles with which humans have cluttered their worlds, from power lines to windowpanes. All of these challenges need explaining from the birds’ sensory perspectives so that effective mitigations can be put in place. The book leads the reader through a wealth of diverse information presented in accessible text, with over 100 colour illustrations and photographs. The result is a highly readable and authoritative account, which will appeal to birdwatchers and other naturalists, as well as researchers in avian biology. The author has researched the senses of birds throughout a 50-year career in ornithology and sensory science. He has always attempted to understand birds from the perspective of how sensory information helps them to carry out different tasks in different environments. He has published papers on more than 60 bird species, from Albatrosses and Penguins, to Spoonbills and Kiwi. His first fascination was with owls and night time, and owls have remained special to him throughout his career. He has collaborated and travelled widely and pondered diverse sensory challenges that birds face in the conduct of different tasks in different habitats, from mudflats and murky waters, to forests, deserts and caves. In recent years he has focused on how understanding bird senses can help to reduce the very high levels of bird deaths that are caused by human artefacts; particularly, wind turbines, power lines, and gill nets.

The most trusted nonfiction series on the market, Eyewitness Books provide an in-depth, comprehensive look at their subjects with a unique integration of words and pictures. DK's classic look at the world of birds.

Find out about some of the 9,500 species of birds that live in a huge range of habitats, from deserts and rainforests to the polar ice caps. As well as finding out about different orders of birds, take a detailed look at individual feathers and beak shapes, and explore behavior, from fish- and meat-eaters to seed- and plant-eaters. Witness the breathtaking moment when a chick hatches from its egg, and watch as the young birds grow in their nest to take their first flight. Discover record-breaking flights and amazing camouflage. DK Eyewitness Bird gives a detailed overview to a fascinating animal species and will encourage you to spot the incredible birds on the wing around you.

Presents a study on the evolution of sexual selection in birds as addressed through a research program by an ornithologist. This book also gives a portrait of the challenges and constraints of experimental design facing any field investigator working with animal behaviour.

Sturkie's Avian Physiology, Seventh Edition is the classic comprehensive single volume on the physiology of domestic as well as wild birds. This latest edition is thoroughly revised and updated and features several new chapters with entirely new content on such topics as vision, sensory taste, pain reception, evolution, and domestication. Chapters throughout have been greatly expanded due to the many recent advances in the field. This book is written by international experts in different aspects of avian physiology. For easy reading and searches, this book is structured under a series of themes, beginning with genomic studies, sensory biology and nervous systems, and major organs. The chapters then move on to investigate metabolism, endocrine physiology, reproduction, and finally cross-cutting themes such as stress and rhythms. New chapters on feathers and skin are featured as well. Sturkie’s Avian Physiology, Seventh Edition is an important resource for ornithologists, poultry scientists, and other researchers in avian studies. It is also useful for students in avian or poultry physiology, as well as avian veterinarians. Stands out as the only single volume devoted to bird physiology Features updates, revisions, or additions to each chapter Written and edited by international leaders in avian studies

The diversity and drama of the bird world brought to breathtaking life in an encyclopedic new edition Unrivaled in scope for a single-volume reference work, this photographic guide to every bird order and family profiles more than 1,400 species, pictured in their native environment by photographers around the globe. Authoritative, comprehensive, and completely up to date, this reference was produced and revised by a team of expert contributors and in partnership with the leading avian authorities Birdlife International and Audubon. Bird's photographic catalog showcases birds from hummingbirds to monkey-eating eagles, each with a photograph, description, three-color distribution map, and data file. Organized in taxonomic order, the catalog has detailed introductions to every bird order. The perching birds alone, making the largest order, occupy 158 pages; and most of their families, such as larks or tanagers, also have their own introductions. Nearly 100 further pages focus in vivid detail on bird biology--their flight, anatomy, feeding, communication, breeding, habitat, migrations, life cycles, and the many habitats they live in. All this, and special features on the world's most impressive birdwatching locations, make this "A must-have reference for every bird enthusiast" (BBC Wildlife Magazine).

How birds produce the brilliant and striking coloration of their feathers and other body parts is the focus of this volume. Hill and McGraw have assembled the world's leading experts in perception, measurement, and control of bird coloration to contribute to this book, which synthesizes more than 1,500 technical papers in this field.